Soldotna Planned Parenthood center is closing at the end of May

After more than 30 years in operation, Planned Parenthood’s Soldotna clinic is closing at the end of May. Patients will be referred to the Anchorage clinic or to the organization’s telemedicine services.

“In terms of just general care, anything that we can provide over telemedicine, we will. Patients would still need to come into our Anchorage site for any physical exam or checkups,” Katie Rodihan said. Rodihan is director of communications for Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai’i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky.

The Soldotna Health Center provides birth control; emergency contraception; HIV services; men’s health care; women’s health care; transgender hormone therapy; pregnancy testing and services; and STD testing, treatment and vaccines. All services can be accessed via telemedicine, except men’s health care, women’s health care, and the STD care.

Once Soldotna closes, Alaska will have Planned Parenthood clinics in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau. The Soldotna clinic does not provide abortions; the other three do.

Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, and Kentucky – which also includes Washington and Idaho – will be closing four other clinics in Idaho and Indiana. Like in Soldotna, they’re closing May 31.

Rodihan said the decision to close these clinics have been months in the making and not based on last week’s U.S. Supreme Court opinion leak.

“That said, we’ve known the Supreme Court was going in this direction for a long time now. So, as we’re thinking through our patient needs and our operation needs, we were definitely taking into consideration what does reproductive care look like in a post-Roe world, and how can we consolidate our operations in some areas and invest in others to make sure that we’re able to reach as many patients as possible?” Rodihan said. “The world of reproductive care is shifting drastically right now. And we just want to make sure that we are prepared to remain committed to all of our states in the years to come.”

Closing the clinics will reduce costs. Rodihan said Planned Parenthood can then increase capacity for patient navigators “to help patients in areas without abortion access understand where they need to go, who they need to talk to, where they can get funding to then access abortion care.”

The Soldotna Planned Parenthood employs three staff members. A part-time clinician also comes in twice a week from Anchorage. In an effort to retain trained employees, Rodihan said Planned Parenthood makes an effort to transfer staff when possible.